A good life and better world could be the Class of 2009’s destiny, if graduates work hard, work with others and think critically about the way the world works, speakers told Stonehill College graduates.

On Sunday, 568 students graduated from Stonehill College during commencement exercises held at the Sally Blair Ames sports complex.

In her commencement address, Stonehill College graduate and molecular geneticist M. Elizabeth Fini said discovery and invention works the same way in science as it does in life.

Achievement in science and life comes with being able to keep trying and work with others despite challenges and roadblocks, said Fini, professor of cell- and neurobiology at the University of Southern California and vice dean for research at USC’s Keck School of Medicine.

“Will you achieve it? I want to tell you that the most important thing — if you want it enough — is to persevere. That involves a lot of hard work, connecting in a positive way with others, and surviving the vagaries of politics and life. But most importantly, it means setting aside your fears,” she said.

Graduate speaker Hector Rodriguez, who majored in psychology and minored in criminology, said the Class of 2009 had made it.

“As we sit here today, some of us may wonder, as well as our parents, ‘What am I doing after this?’ Some of you might panic, while others remain optimistic. For this is not an end, but the beginning of a new chapter in our lives — adulthood,” said Rodriguez, of the Bronx, NY.

“Although this might be a frightening concept to wrap ourselves around, we know that we are prepared because if we could get through a 10-page paper within a night, we are ready for anything,” he said.

Rodriguez recalled the words of his father who told him: “It is OK to aim too high and not reach my goal, than to aim too low and actually reach it.”

The Rev. Mark T. Cregan, president of Stonehill College, said the election of President Barack Obama and the economic crisis offer a context for the Class of 2009.

Cregan said Obama’s election as the nation’s first black president came around 45 years after slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said he had a dream where the content of someone’s character and not the color of their skin would determine their possibilities.

Cregan called today’s economic crisis the worst since the Great Depression and said today’s economy requires consumers to ‘spend, spend, spend.”

“I also pray that Stonehill College has equipped you with the ability to think critically and not take at face value the conventional wisdom of our world,” Cregan said.

“That you will be architects and leaders in a world that will not see accumulation of wealth and consumption as the only good,” he said, “but rather will seek to build a world where the goods of the earth are shared in such a way that no woman, man or child will not have their basic needs met.”